The present invention relates to inline sample processing on Douglas Scientific's Nexar® platform, and more specifically relates to a pipette wash for a dispensing system.
Advances in the biosciences industry have created a demand for high throughput biological sample processing and detection systems. For example, Astle, U.S. Pat. No. 6,632,653, discloses a high throughput method of performing biological assays using a tape with a matrix of wells. In a high throughput system, the source and assay are transferred from microplates into the tape, the tape is sealed, and the tape is accumulated on spools. The tape containing samples, such as biological samples, is then transferred to a water bath product and a reaction may be performed, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using thermocycling. Subsequently, the tape may be loaded onto a detection instrument, which detects presence of a desired analyte, such as nucleic acid presence in a biological sample.
Pipette tips for sample dispensing in such high throughput systems are commonly used once to transfer a biological sample into the tape wells due to the risk of cross contamination associated with reusing pipette tips. Consumable materials like pipette tips increase costs associated with high throughput systems due to the cost of the pipette tips and waste disposal. With a push towards increasing reaction speeds to process even more samples at an ever faster rate, pipette tip costs could become prohibitively expensive.